Tell the students they will begin the new unit by going outside to take a little
barefoot walking trip. Ask them to talk to each other about their experiences on
the trip to help them remember everything they can about the trip. Students go on
a walk for at least 15 minutes. Ask questions during the trip.

Once the class returns to the classroom, have students brainstorm by describing
what they experienced, describing their trip. If the students don't mention each
of the five senses, ask questions: Did you smell something? What did you hear?
See? What did you feel? When you smelled the cafeteria food, could you taste it?
Did you see a dog (some other animal)? How did you know it was a dog? Did you see
the mountains? How far are they? What color is the sky? Did you see any cars?
What were they doing? What parts of your bodies did you use to get all this
information? Discuss how they learn from seeing, hearing, touching, smelling and
tasting.

The teacher develops a word bank or a chart using student responses. Tell
students that at the learning centers they will complete many different
activities that will help them learn more about how humans learn.

At the Art Center students cut out pictures from magazines that show
people using the five senses.

At the Writing Center students complete frame sentences: "I see __________
with my eyes, I hear __________ with my ears," etc. Students supply the words.
The teacher writes the words on a chart for students to use for this lesson and
subsequent lessons.

At the Mathematics Center students sort objects by color, size, shape,
texture, etc.

Students use the laminated pictures of the body organs that represent the five
senses to show that the number five has other names such as two plus three and
one plus four. Using the pictures to group, the students show that one plus four
is the same as four plus one. Using cube counters, the students show that one row
of five red cubes matches a row of four white and one yellow, three brown and two
black, etc.

1. After students complete their activities, ask them to review their experiences
on their walk. What did they learn about the world on their trip? What did they
use to learn on their trip? What is in the world besides people? How do you know?
What kinds of sounds are there? How do you know? What is important about our
senses? We learn about the world.

2. Read the book My Five Senses by Aliki to the students. Discuss the book.
The students show the class the pictures they cut out of the magazines at the
Art Center and why they chose those pictures. How were the people using
their senses?

3. Collect student work for a class Big Book.

4. The students show the other members of the class how they sorted the objects in
the Mathematics Center and explain why they chose those categories. How
many categories did they form? How many objects did they put into each category?
Did they put some objects into more than one category? Which ones? Why?